The otherwise inexplicable cure of a French nun suffering from Parkinson’s disease was accepted in early January by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and Pope Benedict XVI as the confirming miracle that clears the way for the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday.
John Paul II’s life was a life of miracles—a life in which radical openness to God’s grace opened channels of grace for others. In April 1990, the new president of then newly-liberated Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, caught this dimension of John Paul’s remarkable life when he memorably welcomed the pope to Prague in these stirring terms:
“I am not sure I know what a miracle is. In spite of this, I dare say that, at this moment, I am participating in a miracle: the man who six months ago was arrested as an enemy of the state stands here today as the president of that state, and bids welcome to the first pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church to set foot in this land…
“I am not sure that I know what a miracle is. In spite of this, I dare say that at this moment I am participating in a miracle: in a country devastated by the ideology of hatred, the messenger of love has arrived; in a country devastated by the government of the ignorant, the living symbol of culture has arrived; in a country that, until a short time ago, was devastated by the idea of confrontation and division in the world, the messenger of peace, dialogue, mutual tolerance, esteem and calm understanding, the messenger of fraternal unity in diversity has arrived.
“During these long decades, the Spirit was banished from our country. I have the honor of witnessing the moment in which its soil is kissed by the apostle of spirituality.”
“Welcome to Czechoslovakia, Your Holiness.”
In its witness to the miracle of Karol Wojtyla’s life, Vaclav Havel’s eloquence was matched by the untutored eloquence of those thousands of people from all over the world who, spontaneously, wrote the Postulation for the Beatification and Canonization of John Paul II, telling their own stories of how this man they had never met had, nonetheless, changed their lives. Many of the letters were from non-Christians, even non-believers. Some were simply addressed, “Pope John Paul II—Heaven”—and found their way to the Postulation’s offices near St. John Lateran in Rome.
Some of those letters reported recovery from illness; others reported even more difficult recoveries from addictions, estrangements, even hatreds. The professor-pope would likely have smiled at the letters reporting success in passing exams through his intercession. The pope who lifted up the vocation of marriage and who was a fierce defender of the right-to-life of the unborn would have certainly been touched by the letters from previously infertile couples reporting conceptions after years of sorrow and prayer.
On the day of John Paul’s funeral, April 8, 2005, the people of the Church spontaneously proclaimed him a saint with their cries of “Santo subito!”—“A saint now!” With the announcement of John Paul’s beatification, it might be said that the judgment of the Church’s leadership has now caught up with the spontaneous judgment of the Church’s people. Yet John Paul’s sanctity was recognized not only by the people of the Church, but by the people of the world—hence all those letters addressed, “Pope John Paul II—Heaven.” Thus the beatification on May 1 will be, in a sense, an ecumenical and inter-religious affair, in that the life of heroic virtue being recognized and celebrated was a life recognized as such far beyond the formal boundaries of the Catholic Church.
The Church doesn’t make saints; God makes saints, and the Church recognizes the saints that God has made. John Paul II was convinced that God was profligate in his saint-making—that there are examples of sanctity all around us, if we only know how to look for them and see them for what they are. His blessedness consisted in no small part of showing us the blessedness of others.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Comments:
Is a "miracle" 1) an unexpected, scientifically-unexplainable PHYSICAL event? Or is it 2) a wonderful, but rather normal event, in which our MINDS or spirits merely, are changed?
And if the Bible and the Church once promised category 1 miracles - lots and lots of physical miracles - but now semantically shifts that, to category 2? Are we getting a consistent message? Are the old promises really being honored?
Are spiritual results enough? Consider what the Bible said: if you promise a man real actual literal "bread" out of thin air - but then give a starving man, only kind words, or spiritual/metaphorical "bread," is that really OK?
Have you really made good, on your ORIGINAL promises? Have you been honest? This is a question Christians should ask themselves, now and then.
Yet, it remains mostly unrecognised by those who don't know what this particular evil was, and still is, about. Pity.
The author asserts that "the judgment of the Church’s leadership has now caught up with the spontaneous judgment of the Church’s people" - Really!?
This seems to be all part of the Vatican PR machine seeking to justify an inappropriate rush by the present Pope to canonise his predecessor. Yet JPII presided over what Fr Hans Kung has described as "the worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics . . . engineered by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger" (the present Pope).
The institutional Church undwer JPII compounded the offenses by failing to act appropriately including reports to civil authorities, to the detriment of innocent children, not to mention the terrible impact on the lives of the overwhelming numbers of good priests.
John Henry Newman was beatified 120 years after his death, and Mary MacKillop 85 years (100 years to canonisation) - is there any justification for the rush to canonise JPII?
John paul 2 has much to answer for, amongst so many other things ranging from his refusal to act against those clergy and bishops so intimately embroiled in sexual abuse, to the deliberate policy of abandoning his percieved ideological enemies to their violent ends in Central and South America.
this was not a Pope of the People of God, but one of a select and purist few.
The Church indeed does not make saints, but certainly in this case and recent others,intent elements within it do, much to the actual corrosion of the faith of the wider and actual Church.
